Amid reports of a surge in gun sales nationally, the primary dealer of assault-style firearms at the Gibraltar Trade Center’s gun show Saturday was overwhelmed with customers.

Buyers were purchasing the semi-automatic rifles at a steady clip over a 90-minute period, mainly from Randy’s Hunter Center, a Bad Axe-based dealer with the largest exhibit at the center’s Gun & Knife Show in Mount Clemens.

Many gun buyers are reacting to discussions about the federal government potentially trying to limit the availability of assault-style firearms in the wake of the Dec. 14 massive shooting by a lone gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., according to several attendees. Twenty students and six teachers and administrators were killed in the Newtown incident.

“One of my concerns is that the government will screw it up and leave us vulnerable,” said Steve Sicklesteel, 54, of St. Clair Shores, who said he owns about 10 guns and was looking at others Saturday. “I have a concern that they will do something that will be a moot point, that won’t affect crime but will infringe on the rights of citizens.”

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Randy’s salesmen were so busy talking to customers and helping customers with paperwork to complete transactions they didn’t have time to discuss their business Saturday.

A Lenox Township man who said he frequently attends the regular show at Gibraltar scanned the showroom where about 200 shooting enthusiasts and gun collectors milled about, looking at guns, knives, ammunition and related items for sale on several long rows of tables .

“There’s twice as many people” attending the show compared to prior shows, said the Lenox man, who did not want his name used. “I think most people are concerned about what the government is going to regulate. They don’t want to be dictated that they can’t have an AR-15 (the suspected gun in the Newtown shooting) even though they may never use it” since it is not a hunting weapon. “They just want to have it.”

News reports across the country in recent days have indicated increased sales of assault-style, semi-automatic weapons, similar to the one used in Newtown.

Two dealers at Gibraltar said that handgun sales have stayed about the same following the tragic massacre. One dealer said his ammunition sales for handguns are up slightly.

Tom McCullister, 55, of Utica, said discussion about stricter gun controls spurred him to soon join the National Rifle Association and consider buying an assault-style rifle in addition to the shotgun he acquired about 25 years ago.

“I already took the CPL (concealed pistol license) class,” he said. “I’m planning on joining the NRA even if I wasn’t getting a gun. I believe they’re in the right. … People having guns will prevent people from doing that (a mass shooting) because they know people will shoot back. It’s the biggest deterrent.”

He also may buy a handgun but said he prefers a higher capacity firearm for protection in his home.

“If I’m coming with a gun, I want more than a handgun,” he said.

He said understands the desire of some who have suggested limiting the size of gun magazines or clips so a shooter would have to reload. But he still doesn’t believe that would solve anything.

“The only way to deter is somebody shooting back,” he insisted.

He said his daughter and son-in-law also plan to buy guns for the first time.

Several show-goers agreed the root of the problem with mass shootings lays with the perpetrator, not the gun.

The Lenox Township man suggested a loosening in the federal health care privacy law — the Health Insurance Portability and Accounting Act, that decreased the availability of people’s health information, including mental and emotional issues — as part of the solution.

“Let everyone know” if a person suffers from mental illness, he said.

Kevin Schock of Dearborn, attending the show with Jackie Jerore of Dearborn and her nephew, who they declined to name, bought a string of 10 bullets, but only for display. He has about 10 hunting rifles and is an NRA member, but doesn’t use any for protection in his home.

“I have an English setter and Brittany cocker spaniel for protection,” Schock said with a chuckle.